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Robert Shelton wrote the rave review of Bob Dylan in the New York Times that is generally credited with being the piece that "discovered" him in 1961. Twenty-five years later, Shelton, who had followed Dylan's career faithfully, published No Direction Home. Here is the "empathetic and rather magnificent" (Washington Post Book World) story of Dylan, musician and phenomenon.

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Robert Shelton, a critic for the New York Times in 1961, caught an early Bob Dylan gig at Folk City in Greenwich Village and wrote an effusive review for the newspaper. The coverage in the Times was a huge boost to the career of the then-struggling folksinger, and Shelton and Dylan became friends, seeing each other frequently around the Village folk scene. When Shelton, in the 1980s, finally got around to finishing his full-length biography of Dylan, he could draw upon a wealth of insider stories from the early days. The book is naturally strongest when describing Dylan's early career, from his coffeehouse gigs as a Woody Guthrie disciple to the insanely high artistic peaks of the mid-'60s. A particularly engaging passage concerns a freeform interview Shelton conducted with Dylan as they flew high above the Midwest in early 1966; Shelton's memories of Dylan are essential reading for fans. Shelton saw much less of the notoriously private Dylan as the years passed, and the book loses momentum as he becomes less of an eyewitness and more of a distant observer, though Dylan's story is credibly told up through the mid-1980s. --Robert McNamara--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Years in the making (some interviews conducted for it date back to the mid'60s), and much of it based on Shelton's personal experience, this hefty book supplants Anthony Scaduto's Bob Dylan as the definitive biography. Shelton was the popular-music columnist for the New York Times from 1958 to 1968, in which capacity he wrote the first attention-drawing reviews of Dylan's coffeehouse gigs in 1961; the position also brought him into close contact with many of the music-industry principals he writes about. A friend of Dylan's and a fan, Shelton succeeds in making this opaque and often irritating person comprehensible, even likable. Dylan has always shrouded himself in mysterioso antics, railed against inconstant friends and fallen into the trap of being one himself (notable instance: turning his back on Joan Baez) and delighted in giving out meaningless, perverse and nasty interviews. Shelton manages to locate the authentic Dylan: the pilgrim seeking enlightenment and salvation, the husband and father, the genius who wrote songs as beautiful as "Blowin' in the Wind," "Don't Think Twice" and "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," and as apocalyptic and prophetic as "Maggie's Farm," "Desolation Row" and "Hard Rain." The author incorporates a number of lines from Dylan's work into his text, which discusses the man's life and career under subject headings, a format that keeps him from following a strictly chronological order. The book is nevertheless comprehensive and clear. This is first-rate biography and a marvelous re-creation of the music scene of the '60s and later. The text is supplemented with brief analyses of every song, a song index, discography and bibliography, and 16 pages of black-and-white photos (not seen by PW. 50,000 first printing. Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

A master in the day, Bob Dylan's story of his early coffee shop day up untill about the mid-80's. Robert Shelton in 1961 wrote a article for Dylan that help his music take off.Dylan went from the Village folk scene to performing in front of large crowds of people. This book shows the transition from a coffee shop to the big stage. While telling you a blow for blow story of Dylan's life right up untill the mid-80's. The story starts out close to Dylan and over the span of the novel it come more of a distant observer. This book summerizes the whole time period and makes Dylan's personality better known. His songs have more impact now that you understand his motives. I recomend reading it.

Whether or not this is the BEST Dylan biography is hard to say, there are millions of them out there...certainly it has to be the best-researched, and one of the most heartfelt; Shelton gave Dylan his first great review, "discovered" him, in effect, and though he critically assesses Dylan's subsequent works there's never a doubt that he's Dylan's biggest fan. A midnight conversation on a private jet between Shelton and Dylan in the mid-60's is the best thing in the book, fascinating reading...but there is such a concept as too much of a good thing, and the minutae Shelton indulges in gets tiring. He apparently went to every concert and every party Dylan did, and his insistence on inserting himself into the scene makes me wonder about his objectivity. Maybe Shelton thought he was one of the new journalists. I don't know. But less Shelton would've been helpful. Also, Shelton insists on punctuating almost every paragraph with a hidden line from one of Dylan's songs; for awhile it's clever, but it gets old fast.The book was out of print for a long time, and that's too bad. I hope it stays in print. It's incredibly packed with facts and interpretations and long quotes both from Dylan and those close to him. It's just TOO MUCH, that's all. But good. A worthy biography of the most potent force in popular music since Sinatra. How's that for a name out of left field?

Who is Bob Dylan? None of the biographies I've read - Sounes, Heylin, Scaduto, and a short book by Toby Thompson (1971) - are by people that really knew him. Shelton is the New York Times reviewer who heard Dylan play in a Greenwich Village coffee house not too long after he came to NY and wrote a very promising review about him, which helped him on his way... Shelton also got to know him, spent time with him, and was able to piece many things together and interview people that were not mentioned in the other books. The interviews and stories are interesting and informative, fill in gaps left by the other books, and we get more of a feeling of Dylan, especially before he came to NY and as he was developing. This is a very well written book. Fans will like it a lot.

You must be interested in Dylan, as both a folk artist and a renegade, to take on this lengthy biography. If you are though, Shelton provides you with almost a Bible of Dylan from 1941 in Duluth, MN to 1985 in NYC - through all his different stages, his changing emotions, his passions - and of course his music. Getting into Dylan can be intense but he'll rumble your soul and twist your head a couple times so you get to see whats all around you. His influence on music and society is absolutely far-reaching. This book is excellent!!!

. . .start (of course) with the albums, of course, especially "Freewheelin'," "Highway 61 Revisited," "Blonde on Blonde," and "John Wesley Harding," "Basement Tapes," "Blood on the Tracks," "Bootleg Series Vol 4," and maybe "World Gone Wrong." Then check out "Don't Look Back" on DVD. Shelton's book has a lot of great information about Dylan, but it's not the best organized or most concise biography you'll ever come across (maybe it's the editor who worked on the book's fault [?]). It's also now a bit dated, published in 1986. Clinton Heylin's "Man Behind the Shades" (1991) and Howard Sounes' "Down the Highway" (2001) are both more up-to-date and easier reads. Greil Marcus' "Invisible Republic" (1997)does a better job of placing Dylan's music in a historical context. "No Direction Home" is a sprawling collection of interview excepts, biography, oral history, the author's personal recollections of Dylan, musicology, and literary criticism that never really connects the dots, but there is a lot of great information for the experienced or semi-experienced Dylan enthusiast to wade through

I really enjoyed this book. This is the first book I've read about Dylan so I can't say this is the best because I have nothing to compare it with but I found it very enjoyable and I liked the fact that the author is a friend and who acknowledges that so we know from what bias he is writing, a bias I rather enjoyed because there really is no objective way to look at Dylan- it's all subjective and this book is a great subjective overview. I also enjoyed how the author gave his commentary on Dylan's music and lyrics but left room for other interpretations- I think that's how Dylan wants his lyrics to be interpreted- leaving them open for each individual to have his own opinion. It's also cute how the author uses Dylan's lyrics to name his chapters and sections. I recommend this book to anyone who's a Dylan fan and/or interested in the folk/rock music period of the early 60's especially.